News & Events

Counselling and services

We Are At Home Here is a documentary film introducing the life of migrants in Slovakia. It reflects the attitudes of Slovaks to migrants and how their opinions do(not) correspond to the reality of migration. You can also project this film in your town or in your home. The film is also available in HD quality at the YouTube site of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), where it was viewed more than 5,200 times between April 2013 and February 2016. Thousands more people have seen the film during public and school projections in dozens of cities around Slovakia.

Drawing on the results of worldwide survey conducted in 142 countries, some 43 per cent favour increasing or keeping stable the numbers of immigrants in their countries, while only 34 per cent support lower levels of immigration.

In September 2015 the Slovak Republic provided a temporary shelter on its territory to 66 Somali refugees from Eritrea. IOM transferred the refugees to Slovakia where they are temporarily accommodated in the Emergency Transit Centre (ETC) in Humenne. The families were forced to flee their home country due to ongoing conflicts and fear for their own lives. Because many of them were stranded for years in refugee camps without hope of returning home, they were provided international protection and later chosen for resettlement to a third country. After years of uncertainty such a solution enables them to start their lives again in safe conditions.

More than 60 employees of public administration and representatives of academia, non-profit sector, media and foreign embassies took part in the educational seminar entitled Irregular Migration – Borders and Human Rights organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as the coordinator of the European Migration Network (EMN) National Contact Point for the Slovak Republic in Bratislava on 25 – 27 August 2015.

IOM Director General William Lacy Swing's message for World Humanitarian Day (19 August): "Picture a scene at International Aid Headquarters in Erbil Iraq: A family has been waiting for hours in the hot sun. They need some basic information about the “who, when where” of an aid distribution…but communication has broken down, because the guard is unable to help. He doesn’t know how to engage upward to his superiors to find an answer, nor directly to the needy—and that is how missions fail to meet their goals."

“Trafficking in persons not only flourishes during a disaster, it is a direct result of disasters, every bit as much as the infrastructural damages, the loss of life or the food shortages which garner far more attention,” said Ambassador Swing.

From 2010 until May 2015, International Organization for Migration (IOM) delivered 24 trainings and 17 workshops for experts from the Slovak public administration institutions which provide services to third country nationals. More than 500 participants gained skills in intercultural communication and knowledge in the field of migration and migrant integration in Slovakia. The aim of the capacity building is to help improve the services for the migrants from non-EU countries as well as the cooperation of participating institutions. The participants of ten of the workshops were involved in the Information Days for Migrants. Migrants from 22 non-EU countries took advantage of this free counselling at one place. More information on the project and its results.

About IOM

International Organization for Migration (IOM) is the leading international, inter-governmental organization in the field of migration. It acts in accordance with the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits both migrants and society. IOM in Slovakia continuously implements various projects and activities in the areas of migrant integration, assisted voluntary returns, counter-trafficking, resettlement of refugees and coordination of the European Migration Network activities.

This webpage does not offer any legally binding views. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) does not take any responsibility for damages caused by the improper use of the information published on this website.